The Way We Were

Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum opens tomorrow at Middlebury College Museum of Art in Middlebury, Vermont.

Our popular traveling exhibition Young America traces the nation's growth from colonies to nationhood through the eyes of its greatest artists. Samuel Colman's Storm King on the Hudson is one of more than fifty artworks on view.

Storm King Mountain, near West Point on the Hudson River, is named for the storm clouds that gather at its peak. Here the plumes of gray-black smoke from the steamboats counter the bank of clouds. Colman uses the smoke and clouds to weave a visual tapestry between the natural and the man-made. Further underscoring the union of man and nature, Colman contrasts three types of river vessels: steam-powered, sailboats, and rowboats.

Source: Gwen Everett. Young America: Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum (exhibition text, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 1999).

Pictured: Samuel Colman, 1832–1920, Storm King on the Hudson, 1866, oil, 32 1/8 x 59 7/8 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of John Gellatly.